Astronomy
I recently attended a talk on a subject within my area of expertise by someone who is not an expert in this field. He argued that the physics he was solving should still apply to the problem, but it quickly became abundantly clear that his understanding of the basic issues was insufficient. In any case, he became quite defensive, alternating between dismissing criticism by saying he wasn't an expert in the field and challenging the audience to produce better explanations. I began to feel like he was asking for advice but then refusing to take any of it.
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Astronomy
The Effect of Demographics in Talk Dynamics
I recently attended a talk on a subject within my area of expertise by someone who is not an expert in this field. He argued that the physics he was solving should still apply to the problem, but it quickly became abundantly clear that his understanding of the basic issues was insufficient. In any case, he became quite defensive, alternating between dismissing criticism by saying he wasn't an expert in the field and challenging the audience to produce better explanations. I began to feel like he was asking for advice but then refusing to take any of it.
It was only afterwards that it dawned on me that his three main critics were young (under 40) women (yes, one of them was me), while he was an older (50s? 60s?) man. It made me wonder if he responded to us that way because of our youth and gender. Unfortunately, I don't have a good baseline for judging whether there was gender bias or not, because we women pretty much dominated the discussion.
Then again, young women dominated the discussion! It seems to be a peculiarity of my subfield of astronomy that lots of young women are in it, especially in my research group. It's nice, but it makes me wonder if I'm shielded from a lot of gender bias because of it.
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I've lost track of the number of times I've experienced the following scenarios: 1) During a heated discussion?speaking clearly and out loud?I say something that no one appears to hear. A man repeats it minutes, maybe seconds later, to accolades...
- Why I'm Happy And Why It Matters - Guest Post By Renée Hlozek
While I was still working at Caltech earlier this year Renée Hlozek (pronounced "logic") --- Princeton astrophysicist, cosmology theorist and astrostatistics expert---stopped through Pasadena to give a science talk. During her visit she...
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This week I gave a talk about physics education that included a substantial discussion of the benefits of diversity in creating a successful university program. I was presenting in a different country, where the culture is patriarchal although respectful...
- Lipsticks And Labcoats
March is Women's History Month, and this year's theme is Women in STEM. As part of my university's festivities, we had a panel discussion entitled, "Lipsticks and Lab Coats: Women?s Challenges and Journeys in STEM." Despite not being a wearer...
- One Up, One Down
Communicating in a Male Dominated Field - Several weeks ago I asked a tenured male colleague to review a paper I was writing, the subject of which he knew well. I proposed some basic physics that applied to a specific subset of exoplanets with ~100% certainty,...